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Lycan FAQ
__TOC__ .: Lone Wolf / Skinwalker F.A.Q. :. (OUT OF DATE - CHECK IN WORLD FOR LAST REVISION) Contacts: Phoebe Scribe or Seanan Ghost =What things are common to all Lycans?= * Shift into two shapes (werewolf, wolf) * Possess enhanced senses of smell, hearing and sight in human form * Are bound by the Law of the Jungle (see Laws of the Jungle for details) * Have an instinctive hatred of vampires, should they ever discover one (see other supernaturals below) * Have a life span of 350 years (see regeneration below to see how it may affect a lycan's lifespan) * Have the ability to heal and regenerate (see regeneration below) * NO lycan can have ANY cybernetic implants (an activate lycan with implants will find them rejected after the first shift) =What's the difference between a Skinwalker and a Lone Wolf?= =What's the difference between being born with an active gene (a "born lycan") or carrying a recessive gene (an "activated lycan")?= The following are the main differences between the types: Born Lycans: * Have one or two parents who are lycans * Can be born of two human-shaped lycans, or two wolf-shaped lycans; the latter are born as wolves and their connection to the natural world is generally stronger, as is the call of the pack * Experience the initial steps of transition with the onset of adolescence; slower and more gentle than for activated lycans (see below on transition) * Experience their first change with the full moon after their 18th birthday (see more below on the first change) * Born lycans who become Skinwalkers may or may not enter the SIM with IC mastery of some or all of the learned abilities *MUST be a Skinwalker to RP any learned abilities Activated Lycans: * Have one parent who is a lycan * Carry the potential to be lycan but have lived their lives as pure human * A seriously traumatic event (physical, emotional, and/or mental) may trigger the gene, causing it to initiate transition; transition is more intense and much faster than born lycans (see below on transition) * Experience their first change with the full moon after the traumatic event unless the triggering event occured within 3 days or less of the full moon *''Skinwalker only:'' Another Skinwalker can invoke the first shape change in an activated lycan under the right circumstances =What is this transition thing?= Transition includes the following: * Gradual enhancement to senses of smell, hearing, sight (in order of greatest to least intensity) * A degree of attraction to nature * Mood swings, less control over emotions, prone to anger, predatory urges (hunt, mate, feed) *''Skinwalker only:'' Pack members can calm someone in transition; the scent of pack, from another pack member or from marked territory can also calm someone in transition *''Skinwalker only:'' A sense of connection to pack members, an almost instinctive awareness of where they are when they are in range * An increased ability to heal (see regeneration below) =What are the individual forms and what can I do in them?= Note, as stated above, Skinwalkers have access to significantly more forms than Lone Wolves. Human (or Canine Hybrid): * Human levels of strength, agility, stamina, or * Canine hybrid levels of strength, agility, stamina * Blood/DNA tests show pure human (or canine hybrid) * Enhanced sense of smell, hearing, sight (if canine hybrid, does NOT stack) * Possesses the nature of the wolf within; degree of control varies with the waxing and waning of the moon * Canine hybrids do NOT "go feral" as they might have done as hybrid characters in times of stress; they certainly have access to the same nature of the wolf within and how it affects emotions and control Wolf: * As the natural wolf found in the wild * Thoughts, drives, emotions, needs as the natural wolf found in the wild * Blood/DNA tests show pure wolf (see below on Blood Samples) Dire Wolf (Skinwalker ONLY): * Prehistoric wolf, huge in size, meaner and more primitive in disposition * Thoughts, drives, emotions, needs similar to the natural wolf found in the wild * Blood/DNA tests show pure wolf (see below on Blood Samples) Were-human (Skinwalker ONLY): * Like a traditional hybrid but really the most variable of forms * A shape that varies along a spectrum, spanning human shape (or canine hybrid shape) to werewolf * Size can be the same as human or stretched taller or smaller * Skin can be the color of the wolven fur or fully furred * Curved canine teeth, canine claws, wolven eyes, wolven ears, wolven tail * Thoughts, drives, emotions, needs are somewhere between human and wolf * Enhanced strength, agility, stamina * Blood/DNA tests show typical canine hybrid (see below on Blood Samples) * THIS is the form (in some variation) worn inside the Lashkar armor Armored Lashkar (Skinwalker ONLY): * Special, traditional garb made by and for the Skinwalkers so that they can go in public in their were-humanm forms * Possess the strength of their wolven natures while retaining the tactical and logical thinking of their human natures * Blood/DNA tests show pure human (or canine hybrid) (see below on Blood Samples) Werewolf: * The traditional monstrous beast-man form from legend and folktales * The quintessential predator * Enormous size, strength, agility, stamina * Driven by the focused need to hunt, feed, mate * Will hunt in packs (*Skinwalker only) * Blood/DNA tests show something from the family Caniformia (see below on Blood Samples) See Lycan Biology for more details. =What happens if somebody gets a blood sample from me?= Firstly, there's two very general ways to have a blood sample: * Blood as in a puddle from a wound, or a dried bit on cloth, or a scraping from the edge of a weapon. These are non-sterile and unlikely to reveal much at all. * A proper, sterile blood sample, taken intravenously (by vein) and transported within a short time window to state of the art laboratory equipped for serious testing and analysis. It is less than 1% likely that a sample would be taken from Lashkar, Wolf-Human, Dire Wolf or Werewolf forms. They need to hold still and cooperate. In ALL cases except the werewolf, what you see is what you get. * Human: Human blood/DNA * Wolf: Wolf blood/DNA * Dire wolf: Wolf blood/DNA (and there would be no differentiating between "prehistoric and common") * Wolf-human: Canine hybrid blood/DNA * Werewolf (crude, non-sterile sample ONLY): Tests as something from the family Caniformia, which includes 12 subsets, most common being: The non-sterile sample would show the DNA as having characteristics that are present in all these subsets but unable to refine further without a proper sample drawn direct from a vein into a sterile vial. Which, again, isn't happening. =Do I remember stuff from my various forms when I'm human?= * Memories are filtered through thoughts, drives and emotions that are unique to the form they were experienced. With age and experience, a lycan can learn to better interpret the memories as they recall them, but new and young lycans will find memories to be more abstract and difficult to pin down =Where can I hunt?= * The Midian Park, the swamps, and the tunnels and sewers below the city are all valid lycan hunting grounds * The Skinwalker pack claims the park, especially the deeply wooded end, as their own territory and mark it frequently =Do I need an alt?= * It depends on how secret you want your lycan nature to be OOCly. Having an alt CAN help prevent unconscious metagaming when people RP with you on your human/canine hybrid main. That said, ICly, while you are forbidden by the taboo against it to reveal your lycan nature by words or deed, as a player you are free to emote your nature as you see fit. =How do I handle my first change to a werewolf?= * The first change after transition is always to werewolf and at the full moon. How you choose to roleplay the change is an individual choice. Interact with other lycans and take inspiration from them. * Generally, the first change can be a painful, incredible, mind-altering and world-changing event for the lycan. =How do I heal/regenerate?= As always, balance the needs of the IC/OOC masque (the Laws of the Jungle) with RPing Lycan injuries. Healing: * Lycans heal significantly faster than human normal, although never so fast that the healing is visible to the naked eye. * An increase in temperature accompanies lycan healing; the more grevious the wound, the higher the temperature. * Lycan bodies will try to conserve energy when healing, forcing the lycan into a state of near somnelance from which they are difficult to rouse; the more grevious the wound, the greater the degree of somnelance, the longer it lasts, and the harder it is to rouse * The lycan will wake hungry, perhaps ravenous * Burns and infected wounds will require cleansing/skinning/removal before healing can begin * Damage caused by weapons-grade silver (NOT decorative silver), by another lycan, or by a vampire's bites/scratches is considered aggravated and healing is delayed as if the lycan were human normal; removing the damaged part can restore the lycan healing process * If a lycan is exposed to toxins/venoms/poisons, the fast metabolism will burn through it quickly; either the duration of hte effect is reduced, or the overall effects are reduced Regeneration: * A lycan can regenerate a severed limb, recover from severe organ damage or even the removal of organs * The more severe the damage, the more debilitated the lycan and the longer it takes * The lycan will be ravenous after waking and be unable to shift form until they have had food Death: * A lycan can come back from death so long as the heart remains intact * THIS SORT OF REGENERATION WILL TAKE ABOUT 50 YEARS OFF THE LYCAN'S LIFESPAN * Regeneration occurs by body system; nervous sytems, skeletal system, cardiovascular, GI, GU, musculoskeletal and all other remaining systems * It is painful, traumatic; roleplay the effects afterward appropriately * The lycan will finally waken with nothing but pure hunger within, the need to feed, and be unable to shift until they have some kind of nourishment =How do I keep all this stuff ICly secret so I don't break the Laws of the Jungle?= * Be subtle! When sampling the air or scenting, make it a natural seeming gesture. Or look away and rub your nose. Or have your hair swing in front of your face, or tie your shoelace. Be creative. * ICly wear bandages for wounds after they've healed so people don't wonder. For healed injuries that seem impossible, blame Ashagi if anyone asks :) They don't mind the free marketing. * Control is a power of its own for a lycan character. The taboo against revealing your nature is fierce enough to allow torture and pain without shifting, no matter how much you may want to turn werewolf and eat their face. =What about Vampires?= * All lycans feel a bone deep, instinctive revulsion for the walking dead. * Consent is still king, even more so with lycans and vampires. * If a vampire player says you can't smell that he's a vampire, then you can't. * No one can smell that you are a lycan save Skinwalker who's been taught the technique. * There is great fun in roleplaying out a secret war with the vampires since we BOTH must operate in total secrecy. * Lycan blood tastes just like human blood and has no detrimental or advantageous effect to the vampire, no more than any other human * Damage from a vampire's bites/scratches is considered aggravated and healing is delayed as if the lycan were human normal; removing the damaged part can restore the lycan healing process * Damage TO a vampire from lycan bites/scratches is considered aggravated and these wounds will take twice as long to heal than traditional wounds * Because of their dual natures, lycans are highly resistant to supernatural and psychic attempts to control or touch their minds; the age of the lycan and the generation of the vampire influences how readily the lycan defends against such an invasion * If a lycan chooses to lower this natural guard, they can control this defensive reaction and allow it =What about all that special stuff with the Skinwalkers?= What follows are the characteristics that differentiate the two types of lycans in the SIM. The Pack (NOT "The Pack", the Midian City faction of hybrids in Apoc): * The Skinwalkers are a pack and they gain all the benefits inherent in that structure. They guard each other, hold loyalty and kinship with each other, hunt together, and generally form tight bonds. Regardless of other faction alliances, the pack is family. No matter how stubborn, angry, independant each pack member may be (and oh, are they), they are kin. In a fight, they know bone deep that this is what makes them strong. An excellent resource to inspire and inform: http://www.wolfcountry.net/information/WolfPack.html Learned abilities: * The Lashkar language * Gesture commands * Dire wolf, were-human, armored Lashkar * Partial shifting * Detecting other lycans via scent * Trigger a shape change in a pack member * Beastmastery Beliefs/Goals: * The Skinwalkers believe that they are nature's warriors, guardians to protect the earth from her enemies who would destroy her. The are the Wolf Guard (the meaning of the word Lashkar) and they are fiercely dedicated to this fundamental belief.